Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
***Tell that to your church.***
The Church of Jesus Christ is telling ME. Reverse information flow, WM. I do not get to make up my own personal theology or have my own personal god created in my own image on the hall stand so that I can rub his head for luck as I walk by.
I don’t get to make the rules, or create the theology.
***The Roman church after gaining state recognition has always sought to centralize power in itself.***
An interesting statement on many levels.
May I ask how much power that you believe that the Roman Catholic Church has currently?
Is dying for a cause proof that it was true and right?
TThe mindset here is that of unbelief of the extent of Muslim occupation of the entire world.
They do not know of 6 centuries of Muslim occupation of Spain.
They do not know of the Muslim occupation of the regions best known to them as Albania/Kosovo.
They do not know of the Muslim occupation of the Holy Lands.
They do not know of the Muslim occupation of Turkey and most of the Middle East.
They do not know of the Muslim occupation of Egypt and all of North Africa. They have no idea where St. Augustine came from.
They have no idea of the Muslim occupation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
They have no idea of the Muslim occupation of Burman and Southeast Asia.
They have no idea of the Muslim occupation of the Phillipines.
They have no idea of the Muslim occupation of Indonesia and Malaysia.
And, they have no idea whatsoever of the Muslim occupation of Dearborn, Michigan.
They are coming for you, people. The former Catholic stronghold of Hamtramck in Detroit has a mosque blaring out prayers six times a day, even though church bells are forbidden because they are religious.
They are coming. What you all going to do about it?
Patriotic? American? Responsible? How about just One-that-doesn't-break-the-law-and-jeoperdize-American-security-out-of-greed-in-order-to-stuff-it's-pockets-with-profits? Who cares what you call it? It's what it does or doesn't do that matters.
That was done by the Catholic Curch just because there were few renagde priests involved in that madness? Show me where the Catholic Church supported such genocide. Talk about a broad brush!
And you left out the Holy Land aka the Land of Israel in which the EO and RC Patriarchs side with the Muslims against the Jews on a daily basis.
They are coming for you, people. The former Catholic stronghold of Hamtramck in Detroit has a mosque blaring out prayers six times a day, even though church bells are forbidden because they are religious. They are coming. What you all going to do about it?
Just decide not to sell out like the Catholics of Hamtrammack.
In our community Catholic Charities has been sponsoring Muslim families from Bosnia and elsewhere for over a decade now -- thousands of them. So just who is the real problem here????
Obsfucations and slipping and sliding around is still not giving it a name.
Nor do you appear to offer even much clarity in what you’d prefer.
I’m beginning to wonder if the goal is there to even communicate at all beyond screaming at capitalism about greed and illegal aliens.
Offering nothing of substance as an alternative after repeated requests doesn’t speak very loudly to me about your own respect for your own position . . . or else it does . . . in a kind of obverse, upside down, paradoxical sort of way.
Perhaps it’s because there’s no real knowledge and confidence there about ANY ALTERNATIVE ‘system.’
Or perhaps because there’s a fairly reasonable and sure knowledge that virtually the whole of FR would reject whatever alternative might be offered to capitalism.
Once again . . . avoidance of answering the question is pretty much a cheap sort of reply, to me. Actually, it scarcely qualifies as much of a reply at all, to me.
"a few renegade priests" -- 500,000 Orthodox Serbs???? and all of this going on only a few miles from the Vatican and the Vicar of Christ know nothing about it???? LOLOL
I suggest you go broad brush up on the Croatian Catholic Ustashi, then that mass murdering frequent visitor to the Vatican named Anton Pavelich, then his immediate superior and collaborator Archbishop Alois Stepinac convicted after the war and then rewarded with a Cardinal's hat, and finally all those other Croat Catholic prelates with blood on their hands who were whisked away down those infamous Vatican Ratlines after the war. You're right -- no Vatican connection here -- keep moving along.
You are even out of touch with your fellow Orthodox Serbs. They know the truth, so why don't you????
This is because we reach out to everyone in need out of Love, and in turn we pray that our example of Love will open their hearts so we can minister them.
A while back on another religious forum a protestant brother told me that while he was working at a homeless shelter that he observed that the homeless people would not show up when a certain group of protestants were working at the shelter and they would show up in large numbers when the Catholic community was there.
He was told by the homeless people that they felt threatened by th the constant pounding of scripture versus being thrown at them to the point it made them feel belittled.
He went on to say that the Catholic’s simply Loved them and humbled themselves in the way they served them.
This, my friend is Christian Love.
Love is Not one’s ability to choose whom to love and to force the Bible on someone!
I wish you Peace of mind!
They are coming for you, people. The former Catholic stronghold of Hamtramck in Detroit has a mosque blaring out prayers six times a day, even though church bells are forbidden because they are religious. They are coming. What you all going to do about it?
Catholic Charities in Hamtrammack probably sponsored them.
stfassisi says that we should LOVE them. They LOVED them in Hamtrammack and now there is no one left up there to LOVE them any more.
“And you left out the Holy Land aka the Land of Israel in which the EO and RC Patriarchs side with the Muslims against the Jews on a daily basis.”
This seems to be a regular refrain of yours. UC, you haven’t a clue who those Orthodox and Latin Catholic people in Israel are do you? Do you think that they are people who sort of moved in drooling like the evangelical tourists who infest the Holy Land these days, wandering around like livestock, wide eyed, clutching at their approved versions of the bible and looking for red calves? They are, in fact, people who have been Christians for 2000 years. The Latin and Greek hierarchs there are the hierarchs of those people. Those people are Christian Palestinians. Whom do you suggest they support, UC? The truth is they simply have wanted to be left alone...but neither the Mohammedans, with the assistance of the Bush Administration nor the Jews, with the assistance of the Bush Administration and the money and encouragement of you American Protestants, will leave them alone.
“You are even out of touch with your fellow Orthodox Serbs. They know the truth, so why don’t you????”
At first I was astonished that you would say that to a Serb...but then I remembered that you are an American Protestant, truly one of the elect, who know everyone’s history better than the people who lived it, what’s good for everyone better than they do and even why you’re right and they are wrong about the religion they preserved for 1500 years before anyone heard of Luther or Calvin.
This is the attitude that creates the hate!
On the last day He will say to those on His right, “whatever you did to the least of these, you did to Me, and He will also say to those on His left, whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do it for Me.”
***Are you saying that the Reformed do not, for example, steal, because it no longer brings them that instant gratification?***
All people sin, it is our natural state. Whether it is stealing, adultery, ignoring God, worshipping idols, or coveting your neighbor’s assets, we all sin. No one is exempt, no one is superior. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you say you have no sin, well, you have already broken one of the commandment :>)
With God, we can ignore the base joys, the instant gratification, in exchange for the greater joy of following Christ. We don’t always do that, but with Christ we have the ability.
Take it up with Mark — he asked the question.
The muslims are great at being nice, until there are enough of them that they don't have to anymore.
You guys would scream bloody murder if we distorted your view of God.
***“Sin is not wrong if you are of the elect, doncha know? It is merely a step along the way to one’s salvation and if it affects that majority bound for hell, it is of no consequence.”***
Not one of us has ever said anything of the like.
The others would be non-Christians, not you guys. If one is a Christian then he has the same access to the Holy Spirit as any Reformer. There is no exclusivity. Of course with different Christian faiths, the mileage may tend to vary, but we don't have anything that isn't available to all other Christians.
Does this mean we are not to feed their starving children and not try and be examples of Christ to them?
There would not be people such as Mother Teresa if one would to choose love to be conditional.
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